OREANDA-NEWS. July 14, 2011. Transcript of the beginning of the meeting: 

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues. First, let’s share the current information we have.

The summer harvesting season is now in full swing. What is the situation like on the grain market and inside the agro-industrial sector?

Viktor Zubkov: Good afternoon, Mr Putin, colleagues. Southern Russia is now busy harvesting crops. The situation is business-like, and there have been no setbacks. As of July 13, 7.5 million tonnes of grain have been harvested on an area of 1.8 million hectares. Harvest volumes exceed 2010 levels everywhere. As I see it, government measures, including efforts to expand the area of cultivated land, to provide agricultural producers with seeds, mineral fertilisers, petroleum, oil, lubricants and loans, have yielded results. Analysts now predict that Russia will harvest 90 million tonnes of grain this year, and that all crop harvests will expand. Mr Putin, I am happy to note that this is particularly true of barley and buckwheat crops. These were the crops with the greatest deficit in 2010. Analysts predict that 17 million tonnes of barley will be harvested this year, as compared to 6.5 million tonnes in 2010. The buckwheat forecast is 850,000 tonnes, as compared to 330,000 tonnes last year, a 150% increase.

The price situation remains stable on the grain market. The prices are within levels seen as comfortable both by grain producers and consumers. In effect, zero food inflation is being recorded. Russia actively exports grain. In all, 770,000 tonnes have been shipped in the period July 1-13. About 1.5 million tonnes of grain are to be shipped this July. We have accepted customs agency requests totaling 6.5 million tonnes. Consequently, exports are proceeding smoothly. Russian grain is being supplied to 27 countries, including such traditional customers as Egypt, Turkey and Israel. I am happy to note that new countries, European countries, have started importing grain. Their number is much larger today, and this is very good. Top-quality Russian grain is in high demand on the market. And I suppose that there is no reason or need to introduce any customs-regulation measures today. We monitor the situation, and I think that this will be a relatively good grain year for Russia.